Wendy, I'm pretty confident that the piece was loaded into the kiln before it had dried out- the extra moisture in the piece made it "go boom." I might use the leftover pieces to use in another piece, we'll see. I have two more (smaller) coasters that are waiting to bisque fire, too.

Mike, glad you like it, and glad it survived shipping. I'll post up some photos of the step by steps later this week. I hope it looks okay next to your more refined Headhunter Harbor pieces.

Since I never posted photos, here's MDM's Headhunter Harbor hanging tile as greenware (before it was fired):

Glazing. First I painted black over the cracks and wiped off the excess, then added a brown glaze on top of that. I used another glaze for the letters, hoping for an interesting look (this glaze can be unpredicatble), then some white for the skull. I later painted facial features on the skull (modeled after Mike's original HH Harbor face):

Here's also a quick catch-up of a pendant I made for the San Diego Ohana meet-up, organized by John/ TikiSlinger. The group meets the first Monday of every month at the Bali Hai. I was hurrying up to get them finished for tonight's meet-up. Now that they've been handed out to those in attendance I can post these photos. They are my first press mold, and came out looking particularly rustic. Thanks to Dave (Bowana) for seeing them midway through and giving me great advice for future pendants. I was a royal pain in the rear to attach rings onto the pendants so they'd hang straight on the rope, but did help its presentation. Hopefully someone will post some pics in that thread on the California events page for this group since I didn't take any photos of folks wearing these things. Anyway....

First I carved out a design in negative form (I had traced out the Padres logo to get close (but not an exact replica) to represent our home town... It should be noted that carving "in negative" is something that I probably don't want to repeat...

I made a few different designs, waiting to see how the pressed stamp would look after they were bisque fired. I broke an earlier version when I tried to press it when it was too dry. Oops. Eventually the final press mold felt left out, and made me accidentally knock it off the table, cracking it- though it might be able to be epoxied back together (just don't tell IT that).

I then threw a slab and started pressing stamps. The white powder on some of the ones in the photo is corn starch, it helped keep the clay from not sticking onto the stamp:

Eventually I had a good amount and put them on plaster and drywall to dry out: My pressing technique improved as I went on- but at least the variance adds a slight air of mystery to all of the finished pieces (as in "why does this look so bad?")

These were then bisque fired and glazed. I scrubbed off some of the glaze off of the top layer- the glaze i chose (multiple coats) comes out lighter in thicker applications, and darker in thinner ones. I wanted the raised logo and "Ohana" to stand out from the rest of the stamp. Each one looks a little different since all the pieces were scrubbed/ sanded by hand. Here are a few:

Time to get going on the Art Swap piece, as well as a few other ideas....

David, I never can get tiles to dry and fire without warping. I have placed them between weighted wallboard to dry, etc but nothing seems to work. The coins pendants turned out cool too.
_________________When you hurry through life, you just get to the end faster.
Pirate Ship Tree House

Jon, glazing these little pendants took the longest. Pressing is pretty fast. My first attempt at these, so there was a slight learning curve.

Mike, a few tiles have curved. I think I laid yours out on a piece on drywall, or may have been a flat surface on a plaster mold. By placing it on top of a surface like this, water will be pulled out towards the bottom, keeping it flat. I believe if you have it sandwiched the clay will be pulled two directions at one time, which would make (possibly) it more coved/ unflat. Your tile was a slab that I only moved once- the more clay is moved around/ handled, the more "memory" it will retain, so best to handle your base piece less so that it can succumb to its inner flatness. At least, that's what folks have told me in the clay studio.

Wendy, it was fun though a learning experience. Henrik (Van Tiki) is the press mold master. For a small pendant, I should have attached a small "push handle" on the back. The trick is keeping the mold dry enough (I used cornstarch) to keep on pressin'. A few got lost initially since the bisqued stamp was too wet from stamping, and "held on" to a bit of clay. Fun experience, hope the SD Ohana will enjoy them.

A little more progress- the Moai coasters that survived came out of the bisque load, ready for glazing. I admit, they're a good size for a Zombie glass, probably a bit small for a mug or a rocks/ Mai Tai glass...

I got into the spirit of these, and decided to make a set of two "Kahiki" style coasters (there are also fairly small), if the end result is great I'll make them in a few different sizes. They also can be used as hanging wall tiles. These need to dry out a bit so they can be trimmed/ carved some more.

More progress on the Art Swap piece. I decided to use my first version as a test one (Making a thinner mug form, this test one is almost thermos sized). First I drew out the design w/ a pencil then started carving away: